Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Potentials in Thermal Power Plants

In recent years, Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions and their potential effects on the global climate change have been a worldwide concern. Based on International Energy Agency (IEA), power generation contributes half of the increase in global GHG emissions in 2030. In the Middle East, power generation is expected to make the largest contribution to the growth in carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, it is very important to reduce GHG emissions in this industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine greenhouse gas emission reduction potentials in the Iranian electricity generation sector through fuel switching and adoption of advanced power generation systems. To achieve this purpose two different scenarios have been introduced: Scenario #1: Switching existing power stations fuel to natural gas Scenario #2: Replacing existing power plants by natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power stations (The efficiency of NGCC is considered to be 49% HHV basis). The results shows that the GHG reduction potential for steam power plants, gas turbines and combined cycle power plants in first scenario are 9.9%, 5.6%, and 2.6%, respectively with the average of 7.6%. For the second scenario the overall reduction of 31.9%, is expected. Moreover, the GHG reduction potential is decreased from 1995 to 2005. One of the reasons for this reduction is that in recent years a lot of combined cycle power plants are installed in the country. In fact in 1999 there was no electricity generation by combined cycles but in 2005, 21% of total electricity was produced by these power plants. Moreover, fuel switching from diesel and residual oil to natural gas is another factor to reduce GHG reduction potentials. Most of the Iranian thermal power plants are equipped with duel fuel burners and use natural gas most of the time and 77% of energy consumed in the Iran’s hermal power plants come from natural gas.

Keywords:

Greenhouse Gas emissions , GHG reduction , Intensity , Fuel switching , NGCC